telling a green story

If you are trying to implement environmental change within a theatre, it's important to avoid the idea that this is just a new way of making people feel bad about themselves. The last thing anyone wants is another inspector with a clipboard going round checking up on them.

Each area of the theatre has its own processes (and carbon footprint) and the people who understand those areas best are the people working within them. So start by empowering those people. Make it clear that every aspect of a theatre reflects the creative energies and values of the theatre as a whole.

Don't talk about cuts, reductions and banning things. Talk about where things come from, where things go, and how those processes might be reimagined. It's this narrative, the one that runs from where things are sourced to where the waste ends up, that fundamentally reflects a theatre's place within its community.

Start with the view that everyone within the organisation can be smart and ingenious and think outside the box. Everyone in the building is involved in telling this story.